


young adult friction

by sullypants



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Library AU, rivals to...something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23883529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sullypants/pseuds/sullypants
Summary: Jughead has no time for whatever by-the-book nonsense his North-side librarian counterpart is doling out—his sister's education comes first.A small rival librarians AU.
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 62
Kudos: 140
Collections: 7th Bughead Fanfiction Awards - Nominees





	young adult friction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heartunsettledsoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartunsettledsoul/gifts).



> Wow two fics in a day. Really questioning the fact that I’ve never even remotely been considered for some sort of hyperactivity diagnosis. 
> 
> This is a prompt-that-grew; the prompt ("rival librarians") is from [@theheavycrown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theheavycrown/pseuds/theheavycrown).
> 
> Dedicated to @heartunsettledsoul, my number one librarian boo, in hopes that it brings her some joy.

_That bitch_ , Jughead thinks to himself, immediately followed by _what a prick_. 

He does not want to be _that guy_ , and is disappointed that he’s let himself fall into gendered insults, even if only mentally. That’s how it starts, he thinks.

Putting aside his concerns for his own internalized misogyny, he huffs a sigh, and goes over the list of hold requests his North-side counterpart has submitted. 

The Southside Public Library—true to its neighborhood—has always been the scrappy, slightly-neglected branch outpost of the Riverdale Public Library system—a small system for a small town, consisting only of the main Riverdale Public Library in downtown Riverdale, and its ugly step-sibling on the Southside. 

And now his ML3000s section is about to be decimated, when Jughead knows for a fact that Southside High’s eleventh grade AP US History class is in the middle of a semester-long capstone project, and his sister’s just so happens to be on women in punk and its related cultural descendents.

It’s irrational to loathe his North-side counterpart, this _Betty_ who he’s only interacted with digitally and perhaps two times via phone (the catalogue had been having some IT issues that week), but he despises her nevertheless. 

He assumes based purely on the name that she’s one of those old-school, nearly-octogenarian stereotypes of a librarian. That, and her rigid commitment to form in all their communications. Not an _I_ undotted, not a _T_ uncrossed. Metaphorically-speaking; their interaction is virtual, after all. 

It’s not _Betty_ ’s fault that she’s about to nuke the Southside’s already-minute twentieth-century popular music shelf. She’s certainly not aware that JB’s in the middle of a project that will determine at least twenty-percent of her final grade. 

It’s not rational to be angry at her. But he decides he doesn’t care, and wonders how he might… finesse the situation. Without fucking over his principles, of course. Jughead isn’t going to let his pettiness get in the way of something he’d spent two years and a stupid amount of loan money on—his MLIS. He worked hard for that shit. It gave him his career, it put food on his table for both he and Jellybean, and it kept a roof over their heads. 

He’s a big believer in education (he’d thought about a Masters in Education, too, but Library Sciences won out), and he wants every single opportunity he’d had to scrape tooth and nail for, to in turn fall upon JB with ease.

A lot of elbow grease and focused study hours on her effort, sure—but _ease_ in that it lacked an unstable home, questionable parental influences, and a too-close brush with gang life. 

He’s only been responsible for his sister officially for five years, but those five years were hard-won and also just _hard_. Let this...Northside, privileged-ass librarian get in _his_ sister’s way? No. 

  
  
  
  


He decides it’s okay to play dirty as a protective measure—so long as he doesn’t make a habit of it. 

He pulls the requested books from the section, the ones he thinks JB is most likely to require for her work, and checks them out under his own account. He takes care not to take them all, setting a few aside for delivery to the main library, to avoid looking suspicious.

How many people are checking out eight books on feminist punk theory, after all?

It’s shady, and he knows it. But _desperate times_ , he tells himself. 

  
  
  
  


Jughead thinks no more of it, stashes the books in his locker in the back room, until he gets another list of requests.

Feminism and the intersection of late-twentieth century popular music? The sole copy of Sara Marcus’s _Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution_ in the Riverdale Library system? _Fuck_ no. He’s not about to let Betty get away with this. 

He marks the book _In Transit_ and—he feels a wash of shame as he does it—tucks it behind its neighbors on the shelf. He makes mental note of the location to retrieve it later—when all this has settled down. He thinks JB might actually find it useful.

  
  
  
  


He gets an inquiring email from Betty a few days later, given an _In Transit_ book that never made it to _Ready for Pick-up_ is cause for concern. 

He smirks when he types his response. _Oh no, I wonder what happened,_ he mocks internally. _I hope we don’t have to mark it lost_. 

  
  
  
  


It’s not until Joaquin flakes out from his shift that Jughead is forced to confront his library's more-established counterpart to the North.

Joaquin drives the truck of holds between the two library branches, and sure—his mother’s health complications are valid. But Jughead does not want to have to actually deal with _Betty_ in person. 

Via email and the library’s messaging system is enough for a lifetime, he thinks. 

  
  
  
  


He is thus shocked, standing at the main information desk in the Riverdale Public Library, to discover that _the_ Betty Cooper is the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen in his twenty-eight years of life. 

She can’t be any older than he is. Her hair is golden flax. Her eyes are the most vivid green he has ever witnessed.

She greets him with a friendliness that feels foreign to him, forced to grow up hardscrabble and flinty as he did. 

He shakes himself out of his stupor and tries to summon a suitable greeting in response. 

“I’m sorry about the loss,” she tells him, and to Jughead’s perception she is really, truly, sincerely sad about the lost book. The lost book that Jughead intentionally lost. The one he stuffed behind the bookshelf. 

He starts to feel uncomfortable with himself. 

“Ah…” he begins, but before he can continue, he’s dealt another shock for the day. 

“Why are you here?”

He whips his head around to find his sister in all her leather-and-flannel-and-fishnet glory. He gives his head a shake, as though he might refocus his eyes to find she’s actually just an illusion, some kind of oasis in the desert that doesn’t actually exist.

But she’s real.

He holds his hands out in what he would call the universal hand gesture for _what the fuck_ , and asks her “The—what are _you_ doing here?” 

“Working on my capstone,” she tells him casually. 

He doesn’t even try to hide the incredulity in his voice. “You live in the Southside.”

JB narrows her eyes at him. “Yeah—and that’s _in_ Riverdale, and this is the _Riverdale_ Public Library.” She shrugs at him, looks at him like he’s ridiculous. “Plus they have a bigger collection.”

“You could have requested holds and had them sent to the Southside library!” he argues, before realizing yet another point and continuing, “The books were already _at_ the Southside library to begin with!” She shakes her head at him, raises her hand to disagree. 

“That’d would’ve taken, like, a couple days. This is literally a ten minute drive from home.” She puts her hands on her hips in a motion that Jughead would only describe as definitive. “It just makes more sense to work from here, since this is where most of the books are.” She shrugs. “And Betty’s been really helpful.”

At this point, Jughead remembers they have an audience. His head swings to where Betty stands, scanning in one return after another, transferring them to a rolling cart by some unknown filing system as she goes. She’s feigning great concentration in her work, but there’s zero chance she hasn’t heard every word of their argument. 

“Betty?” he asks, and her head pops up immediately, an inquisitive helpful look across her face. 

He’s struck again by how green her eyes are, and nearly has to shake some sense into his head in order to continue.

“Thanks for helping Jellybean with her project. It’s...worth a lot of her grade.” He feels a minor amount of begrudgement at his own words, and he’s surprised by how little resentment he actually senses in his own voice.

Betty smiles (fucking _radiantly_ , he notes). 

“Oh, my pleasure! JB’s really put a lot of work into it, from my casual observation.” She smiles at Jughead and then JB in turn, and Jughead’s eyes swing back to his sister, who stares at him cannily. 

  
  
  
  


Joaquin’s mother is okay, but he has to take a minor leave of absence to take care of her while she recuperates from surgery. 

Jughead volunteers to be book mule during his leave. 

  
  
  
  


The next time he finds himself at the main library, he once again bears witness to Betty’s radiant grin of welcome—and JB’s liberal side-eye.

_Whatever_ , he thinks, and continues to make small-talk with Betty. He's networking. 

**Author's Note:**

> The title is admittedly a pun with no relation to the story, but que sera.


End file.
